MIT CEHS Boyden Lake Water Quality

MIT CEHS Boyden Lake Water Quality We are a research team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Environmental Health Sciences.

Kathy Vandiver is the community outreach director for the Center. Abby Harvey and Tchelet Segev are graduate students studying Environmental Engineering at MIT. We became interested in studying water quality in the Boyden Lake Reservoir because of past work with the Sipayik Environmental Department. Abby is a native of Orrington, ME and attended the Maine School of Science and Mathematics. She has

worked on atmospheric mercury in Presque Isle, ME, conducted agriculture research at the University of Maine, analyzed methane production in Arctic soils. Abby also performed human health risk assessment for communities surrounding coal plants at Imperial College London. Tchelet has lived in Taiwan, Israel, the US, and South Korea and is interested in tackling global environmental challenges facing communities. She worked on rainwater harvesting in Mexico, wastewater management in India, and sustainable agriculture in Kenya. She also interned at the World Bank in Washington D.C. and Nepal focusing on environmental safeguards. Kathy also appreciates clean water, having grown up in India as a child. She is now part of the MIT’s Center for Environmental Health Sciences where 40 MIT researchers hunt down contaminants in water, air, soils and even inside of human cells. Kathy has a doctorate in cell biology and she taught sixth grade science in Lexington, MA, prior to coming to MIT. She enjoys designing ways to help communicate science. You can see some of Kathy’s materials here:
http://edgerton.mit.edu/k-12/teacher-resources/k-12-curriculum

Abby, Tchelet, and Kathy previously researched water and sediment quality in the Malden River in Massachusetts. This river has a history of prior industrial pollution. The test results were used by the community to help decide the best places for public boat launches

We will be holding two community meetings next week to share the results of this study. They will be:Sunday May 20th at ...
05/18/2018

We will be holding two community meetings next week to share the results of this study. They will be:

Sunday May 20th at 7:00pm at the Community Center in Pleasant Point
Monday May 21st at 7:00pm at the Eastport Welcome Center

All are welcome to attend, regardless of whether you participated in the study.

Light refreshments will be served.

We wanted to update you on when to expect individual results back. We are working hard to analyze the hundreds of sample...
01/31/2018

We wanted to update you on when to expect individual results back. We are working hard to analyze the hundreds of samples we've received as well as collect replicates to ensure the accuracy of our measurements. Because of that, we aim to send results back to all households (including fall samples) between the start of April and the start of June.

This project is being conducted by a group of students, so the turnover is not as fast as a commercial lab. Here we are posing with a bag of kits at our community meeting at Perry Elementary School last October.

We appreciate your patience!

We're extending our priority deadline until February 15th.You can pick up more samples kits from the tribal office and M...
01/31/2018

We're extending our priority deadline until February 15th.

You can pick up more samples kits from the tribal office and Moose Island Marine starting Monday, February 5th.

We sent out these fliers a few days ago to residents of Perry, Eastport, and Pleasant Point! This is what they look like...
01/29/2018

We sent out these fliers a few days ago to residents of Perry, Eastport, and Pleasant Point! This is what they look like, and here's Abby holding a stack of fliers on their way to the post office. Thank you to everyone who has turned in samples already, keep spreading the word!

01/10/2018

January 10, 2018. We will now be accepting samples through February 15th. New deadlines are January 31st (priority) and February 15th (last call). Expect to see more information about the study in the mail in the next week or two!

09/18/2017

September 15, 2017. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Environmental Health Sciences and the Sipayik Environmental Department conducted lab tests on 2 separate days for bacterial content at the spring in Pembroke near Little Falls. Both tests came back positive. We caution you not to drink water from this location.

09/18/2017

We are excited to be returning to Maine in October. We will be holding a community meeting on:

Sunday, October 8, 4:00-5:00pm
Perry Elementary School
Perry, ME

Light refreshments will be provided. We look forward to seeing everyone there!

Note: Our meeting at the Passamaquoddy Community Center has been postponed.

*POSTPONED*
Monday, October 9, 5:30-7:00pm
Passamaquoddy Community Center
Koluskap Road, Pleasant Point, Me

You can read more about the project in Susan Coopersmith's article in the Quoddy Tides. We look forward to returning in ...
09/18/2017

You can read more about the project in Susan Coopersmith's article in the Quoddy Tides. We look forward to returning in October.

Thank you to everyone who came out to the community meeting on Aug 31. It was great to meet everyone and hear your water...
09/18/2017

Thank you to everyone who came out to the community meeting on Aug 31. It was great to meet everyone and hear your water quality concerns. For those of you who couldn't make it, here is the handout with information on the project and how to collect water samples.

09/18/2017

Our purpose is to independently test and provide people with information about the quality of their drinking water. We are working with the Boyden Lake Reservoir communities in Maine that includes the townships of Eastport, Pleasant Point, and Perry.

We are testing your tap water from your municipal water supply, from a well on your property, and also water that you may choose to drink from a local spring. Our plan is to test for heavy metals, namely the following: Arsenic, Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, Copper, Manganese, and Chromium. We chose these heavy metals based on community concerns and common pollutants found in Maine.

You, as a citizen scientist, can voice your water quality concerns to us through community meetings or email. You can collect your own drinking water samples from tap, well, or spring water using the kits available for pick-up and drop-off at the following locations:

Tribal Office
136 County Rd.
Perry, ME

or

Moose Island Marine
5 Sullivan St.
Eastport, ME

We are accepting kits until January 15, 2018. Results will be emailed to each citizen scientist individually, with an associated interpretation by June 2018 at the latest. We will return for a final community meeting in May or June to share all final public results.

Address

Cambridge, MA
02139

Website

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